“While
a romp through the New Age is not everyone's cup of tea,
novelist, publisher and editor Sobel (Minyan)
does a fine job making his 30-year quest for spiritual awakening
widely identifiable with a funny, clear-eyed account that
takes readers around the world and through a gauntlet of
gurus, shamans, workshops and retreats, not to mention sex
and drugs (legal and otherwise). Sobel's twin assets are
his willingness and his sense of humor, both apparent from
the start in his encounter with a guru named Ram Dass,
whose first instruction to Sobel is to take off his pants
("So I did").

“Other episodes
include Primal Therapy training with a teacher who rents
his office space for porn production, the "est" training that
teaches people to accept reality as it is (and then rope
everyone they know into the program), and tours through Jerusalem,
India and Brazil. Sobel's spiritual journey doesn't provide
any answers (these days, the title on his business card is "Human
Being") but provides lots of engaging, regular-guy perspective
on modern man's confounding array of ancient and contemporary
fulfillment schemes.”

“Let The
99th Monkey be
a warning to seekers of truth everywhere: Eliezer Sobel
is living proof that the New Age disease of self-improvement
is incurable. Thankfully, Sobel's utter
failure to get enlightened is chronicled with laughter,
irreverence, insight and raw truth.”

— Gabrielle Roth, author, Sweat
Your Prayers

“...funny, beautifully written,
and often extremely
moving and thought-provoking.”